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Gwardinen

Giant Bomb Joins GameSpot

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Check the announcement video and the attached article. There's also a premium member FAQ article up at the moment that provides more details.

The gist is that Giant Bomb and Comic Vine are spinning off from Whiskey Media to join the GameSpot and GameFAQs network. Given Jeff Gerstmann's history, it's pretty bizarre. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it as a Giant Bomb fan as of yet. It is potentially troubling, but that said they do make the point that the people behind Giant Bomb are still going to be around, and frankly it's them that I've come to trust and enjoy... so I'm not going to panic just yet.

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All I've got to say is that I hope this doesn't turn around to bite the GB crew in the ass, because it really has the potential to.

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According to the giant bomb crew, they are joining CBSi, not gamespot, they are still going to a seperate staff technically.

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They're promising that everything will remain the same, but with more money. I trust they struck a deal that will keep any crazy VP's from trying to merge the sites, but you never can be too sure.

Also during a quick livestream Jeff was finally able to say why he was fired from Gamespot. I guess it was something that was slowly building up with new managers at Gamespot and the Kane and Lynch review was more or less the turning point.

Tested's changes are super crazy though...

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I thought that big media conglomerates buy a money losing venture so that they could change everything until it turns a profit?

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Yep! That's why almost all of the fans of the sites are on edge and don't really believe that Giant Bomb won't be cannibalized, but all of the people from the various Whiskey sites keep promising that it's a good thing for everyone involved. Dunno how that will turn out, but I'm trying to keep my cynical side away.

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Yep! That's why almost all of the fans of the sites are on edge and don't really believe that Giant Bomb won't be cannibalized, but all of the people from the various Whiskey sites keep promising that it's a good thing for everyone involved. Dunno how that will turn out, but I'm trying to keep my cynical side away.

as I see it, the best likely outcome is that Giant Bomb will continue to exist in its current form but get more advertising money and a larger community.

the worst likely outcome is that Giant Bomb becomes the next Gamespot, Gerstmanngate II: Hardly Gerstin' occurs, and everyone fucks off to join gamebomb.ru.

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Jeff and a Gamespot dude talked about Gerstmanngate on a stream here.

My view is that this will ultimately be a good thing for both Giant Bomb and Gamespot, i'm looking forward to seeing what crazy shit GB can do with this.

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About the Tested thing, my mind was definitely blown. That is an incredibly awesome crossover of talent to happen for that site.

I have no idea what to make of the Giant Bomb stuff though, I hope it ends up being a positive thing.

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I think the general reaction has been exactly that, just "Wieeeeeeerd… al…alright…I guess?… are you sure?…ok…ok?…wierd…"

In the livestream Jeff put it quite well, the GB guys are just a bunch of editors and engineers, not business men and that means without experience they suffer financially. Also, apparently premium membership is all that's kept them going for a while now.

He also makes the great point which was, which dumb idiot would buy/invest in a popular site and then destroy it? They've joined the CBSi because their successful and need a little help on the back end, not because its the first offer that's come along.

If the GB guys keep the promises their making I'm fine with it.

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He also makes the great point which was, which dumb idiot would buy/invest in a popular site and then destroy it?

You can say that, you can even think it makes sense, but it doesn't change that sites have, time and again, been completely ruined by takeovers like this.

Quality content generally isn't the shortest path to a successful website.

When business people are involved, people who aren't invested in the quality of that content and only care about how profitable that venture is, you end up with situations where veteran writers are fired to curb costs, and interns are brought on and instructed to start posting top ten lists because those get tons of page views.

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Jeff and a Gamespot dude talked about Gerstmanngate on a stream here.

My view is that this will ultimately be a good thing for both Giant Bomb and Gamespot, i'm looking forward to seeing what crazy shit GB can do with this.

It makes me so sad you refer to Gerstmann by his name and not John Davison :(

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It makes me so sad you refer to Gerstmann by his name and not John Davison :(

Sorry, I've just never heard of him and forgot his name!

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I haven't been to Gamespot since Greg Kasavin left, and I don't got to Giant Bomb very frequently, but I go to Comic Vine fairly frequently so that's the only thing that I really care about. I'm not particularly concerned as far as that goes.

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As someone who actually spent a lot of time on Tested the new site design makes me want to kill myself. The prospect of Will and Norm teaming up with Jamie and Adam was an awesome concept. However it is hard to not feel like some business man came in and slapped his T.V. stars all over the site because he knew it would get more page views that way. I hope Will and Norm make out alright but they have already been cast into the "sidekick" position.

Things look grim. Honestly, if Idle Thumbs wasn't coming back I would go cold turkey on the internet.

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I'm super excited to announce that Idle Thumbs has been acquired by News International! Rupert Murdoch has assured us that he's probably all about video games as well, so this partnership is going to be a great thing for all parties involved. We can't wait to help bring back the cherished "News of the World" brand in a lasting and equitable partnership with Idle Thumbs. I think all of our readers are going to love it!

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I'm super excited to announce that Idle Thumbs has been acquired by News International! Rupert Murdoch has assured us that he's probably all about video games as well, so this partnership is going to be a great thing for all parties involved. We can't wait to help bring back the cherished "News of the World" brand in a lasting and equitable partnership with Idle Thumbs. I think all of our readers are going to love it!

This is excellent news! :tup:

Now you can put the Kickstarter money to good use, too. I have heard from a friend that maintaining an infants' blood swimming pool can be quite costly.

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I'm super excited to announce that Idle Thumbs has been acquired by News International! Rupert Murdoch has assured us that he's probably all about video games as well, so this partnership is going to be a great thing for all parties involved. We can't wait to help bring back the cherished "News of the World" brand in a lasting and equitable partnership with Idle Thumbs. I think all of our readers are going to love it!

STOP THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS! QUICK! Ban Grubbins on Ice until it's changed to it's proper name, "Grubbins on Christ!!!"

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I'm super excited to announce that Idle Thumbs has been acquired by News International! Rupert Murdoch has assured us that he's probably all about video games as well, so this partnership is going to be a great thing for all parties involved. We can't wait to help bring back the cherished "News of the World" brand in a lasting and equitable partnership with Idle Thumbs. I think all of our readers are going to love it!

And so the Countdown to Tears ends on an unexpected note.

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I'm super excited to announce that Idle Thumbs has been acquired by News International! Rupert Murdoch has assured us that he's probably all about video games as well, so this partnership is going to be a great thing for all parties involved. We can't wait to help bring back the cherished "News of the World" brand in a lasting and equitable partnership with Idle Thumbs. I think all of our readers are going to love it!

Is this to replace the Bugle? They made out OK under News International until they got dropped a few months back. I guess they need at least one irreverent and inexplicably (for News International) left wing podcast.

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No, I think its just so they have an internal account they can syphon money from to funnd phone hacking, lol.

"Move some money over into the 'Idle Thumbs' accounts, they need a little more funding" (wink, wink)

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